Hyperbranched polymers are tree-like macromolecules that possess more extensive chain branching than traditional branched polymers containing mostly primary and secondary branches attached primarily to linear main-chain backbones, but less extensive and regular than perfectly branched dendrimers. In other words, hyperbranched polymers have a molecular architecture that is intermediate between traditional branched polymers and ideally branched dendrimers.
While several different types of dendrimers containing different reactive functional groups have been prepared by various synthetic strategies, no such counterparts have been reported for hyperbranched polymers. A notable exception to this is hyperbranched macromolecules that result from ABx polymerization and that ideally contain a single A group in the focal point, if cyclization is suppressed. However, this single functional group per hyperbranched polymer molecule may not be available for further reaction due to such factors as steric hindrance and intramolecular cyclization, and the single functional group is normally present at a negligible concentration such that it generally does not have any utility. Therefore, hyperbranched polymers having a plurality of different functional groups per molecule, and particularly two different functional groups that are reactive under different conditions, are presently unknown.